Disney Closing ‘Toontown’ and Other Virtual World Online Games

In a week that brought the highly-anticipated debut of Disney Infinity, the Walt Disney Company has announced that it is closing down the decade-old Toontown Online video game.

The online game will shut down on September 19, along with the Pirates of the Caribbean Online and Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow. Toontown is what’s known as a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) and cost players $9.95 a month to play.

The Toontown game was named 2003’s MMORPG of the Year and received a Webby Award a decade ago for creating a safe and social world for kids. In the game, members created teams to defeat evil robots.

The company said that it is shifting development focus toward other online and mobile play experiences including Club Penguin.

The closure of Toontown, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow leaves Club Penguin as the only virtual world operated by Disney. The $7.95 a month game has added new content and characters from Star Wars and Pixar, and it’s been reported that more than 200 million penguin characters have been created.

In the just released Disney Infinity, players can play the game on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS where they mix and match their favorite Disney characters and those characters come to life and play together in a virtual “toy box.” Players can also build and customize their own virtual worlds using characters, settings, vehicles, and more.